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Friday, February 10, 2017

The Bookstore Set

Goodmorrow, all! Jess here today with another miniature project. This month I'm working on something a little different, and my idea for it might change as I work on it (as ideas for crafts often do).

What I wanted to do was create a sort of "set" for taking pictures of smaller miniatures like books and papers. So I knew I had to build the set into the roombox itself instead of gluing in a bookcase.

I began with the deep open front box (coming soon)

I used tongue depressors as the floorboards for this box. Usually I go smaller, but these are nice and flat, easy to cut. I purchased mine from the dollar store instead of yoinking them from my doctors office.

A process which takes me a whole evening, and sometimes more - is shaving down the door. I'm all about texture, so I take nail files (also in a pack from the dollar store) and go through several before the door is finished. I sand around all inner sides, and then sand around the small pieces that fit inside those inner sides. The point of the sanding is to give it a more beveled look.

Then I take my awl, which by the way is named Mr. Pointy (A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference) and press into the chip board and drag it in long strokes to give it a wood grain texture.

I'm trying out something new this time - dimension inside my dimensional project. I cut some foam core (Hey - also from the dollar store!) to add another level to the shop. I measured my door to make sure it would still fit inside with another level added, to make sure everything was on the up and up and everything was good to go.

This was the perfect opportunity to use GSLC's 2 Step stairs,(coming soon) which fit in perfectly with this new level I've added here. See how perfect?

You'll notice most of my crafting is done with inexpensive (read: cheap) materials like foam core instead of basswood. I try and fill in foam for wood when I can to save money and use cheaper woods to cover up the foam for texture, which you'll see here. I've used foam core to build up the base of the built-in bookcase.

The whole of the bookcase base is built out of foam core and glued right into the room box.

The thickness of the foam core is about the same thickness of wooden coffee stir sticks, so I use them to outline the smaller bits.

I use more of the tongue depressors to texture the bottom and backing of the bookcase.

More coffee stir sticks!

The bookcase needed some more decoration, so I cut up some of the Victorian Corners and glued them to the base of the bookcase.

This is the base paint of the shop, which at this point I've changed my mind on at least 5 times.

I think I've got a thing for turquoise doors. It is one of my favourite colours, after all. A couple base coats of this and then...

Some green for accent.

More pictures for finishing later this month, so check back with me later!